decline might encourage governments to lower the value of their currencies to boost domestic exports. >> the treasury has had a long-standing position through administrations of both parties over many years that a strong dollar is in the best interest of promoting u.s. growth, productivity, and competitiveness. if confirmed i would not change that policy. >> and as for markets, u.s. stock markets ended mixed with the dow jones industrial average down just about a quarter of a percent at 13,982. as for the tech-heavy nasdaq, that ended up 3,196, actually, up a third of a percent. well, for more on how stocks are trading here, let's go to ramin mellegard, who's at the tokyo stock exchange. so ramin, we're really seeing a bit of a seesaw movement in stocks, one day up, the next day down. but we've also had some key gdp data for here in japan this morning. any direction for that? >> very good morning to you, ai. yes indeed. as catherine mentioned just earlier, we did have the preliminary gdp for the october to december period 2012, which came at minus 0.1 for the previous quarter. and on